Bush Forced to Buckrake in Canada Since All Real Americans Despite Him
I think this does not qualify as a worthwhile Canadian initiative:
Former President George W. Bush’s first confirmed speaking engagement since leaving office will take him from Crawford to Canada.
Invitations to the event, billed as “a conversation with George W. Bush,” say that the former president will “share his thoughts on his eight momentous years in the Oval Office” during a March 17 speech in Calgary, Alberta. [...] But the Canadian firm organizing the lunch has paid sizable fees to Lance Armstrong, Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell and Alan Greenspan. Former President Bill Clinton was paid $150,000 for a March 2006 speech in Edmonton, according to a Canadian newspaper.
But don’t go too hard on our Canadian friends, Alberta is sort of like the Alaska of Canada—an unusually right-wing petrostate where things like working relentlessly to doom the planet to ecological catastrophe are considered worthy of high praise.
51 Responses to “Bush Forced to Buckrake in Canada Since All Real Americans Despite Him”
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February 12th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
As an ashamed Albertan, I proudly confirm Mr. Yglesias’ accurate characterisation of the province of my providence.
Woe.
Really. He’s spot on. It’s horrible there.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
No it is more like Texas. Except with much better prospects and more diverse.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
And a hell of a lot colder.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I despite bad spelling!
February 12th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I hate Matt’s spelling. Doesn’t he know its spelled “bukake.”
February 12th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
I can’t help but hope this is part of some plot to lure him out of the country in order to arrest him.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
So is he going to be arrested?
I was wondering about that too, but so close to home, so soon – the answer is no. I wish there was some way, but it’s just not going to happen. Once his Secret Service protection expires, though, if he ever travels to Europe, the odds go up quite a bit…
Although, this trip might not be a total loss. The blockquote says March 17. I wonder how sloshed Bush will get on St. Patrick’s Day.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Alberta is Texas with healthcare.
Where else can the equivalent of the governor be an alcoholic and pop into a homeless shelter during the Christmas season to berate the poor people with no political consequences?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/klein-ralph/
February 12th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
@ Paulie Carbon–
I actually thought Matt was also going for some sort of bukake headline until I re-read the sentence again.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I third, Tapir, Paulie, comments. Apparently Foreign policy blogs aren’t the only thing on the internets
February 12th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Alberta is sort of like the Alaska of Canada—an unusually right-wing petrostate where things like working relentlessly to doom the planet to ecological catastrophe are considered worthy of high praise.
To be fair, people are just trying to make a living. You can’t fault them for that.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I dislike Albertan politics as much as the next guy, but if Albertans want to make a decent living from gas and oil, by God they will.
Why don’t you berate Norway? It is economically the same.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
March 17 is not just St. Patrick’s Day, a wonderful celebration of…I don’t know, being a drunken Irishman, but it is also the anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq. The idea of Bush getting a giant check to revise history and praise his own accomplishments is very offensive to me in itself. But to do it on the sixth anniversary of the launch of Bush’s invasion and occupation of a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 and that has killed hundreds of thousands of people is just disgusting. The Bush presidency has shaped my political views to a significant degree, and Bush and Cheney continue to make me question my opposition to the death penalty.
I think I’d rather see Will Farrell’s Bush three days before this on HBO.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
It figures the Head Bushpig is going for Canadian bacon.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I wonder if the audience will be vetted beforehand, if there will be loyalty oaths, and if there will be questions. It says “a conversation with George Bush”, but that could just be that a moderator or someone will talk with him on stage, not that there will be an open microphone for questions from just anybody.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I didn’t know they were working relentlessly to doom the planet to ecological catastrophe in Alaska. Is that some sort of official governmental objective up there? I thought they were just trying to meet the global demand for oil and gas, you know, the oil and gas that Matt consumes by operating in the global economy. Or is this just the usual know-nothing stupidity from Matt?
February 12th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
(sigh) Oh Matt …
February 12th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Sylvester the Cat sez: Man, those typos are despitable.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
If the plan is to arrest him, Calgary would certainly add to the element of surprise. More likely, though, as a Calgarian I think it more likely they give him the keys to the city, having thrown pretty much every other gift their way that we could.
February 12th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Doesn’t he know its spelled “bukake.”
I’m glad I’m not the only one whose mind conjured up some very bizarre images with this headline. But I do believe it’s spelled “bukkake,” not that I’m going to google it here at work.
February 12th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Hopefully someone alerted the Hague.
February 12th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Calgary isn’t really a Canadian city, more like a suburb of Dallas.
And Norway manages it’s oil much better than Alberta, real environmental policy and it saves most of the funds.
February 12th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Some of up hear in the grate white North may be right wing Matt, but at leest we can spell propperly. Ian from Kanada.
February 12th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Well, as an Edmontonian, I am bothered. There are a lot of left-wing + sensible Calgarians, so perhaps we can pull off a large and angry demonstration.
Here is hoping. That man should go nowhere without at least 10 shoes flying at him.
Some cousins of mine have contacts with the Calgary jet-set, and that crowd boasts about visiting Crawford and encountering a Bush. I think most Edmontonians, and even most Lethbridgians, Calgarians and rural Albertans would be disgusted to be in the same room as a Bush.
Adam
February 12th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Tough and savy Calgarians don’t suffer fools gladly. Alberta’s oil fields are booming, and Canada is weathering the global economic crisis better than most. If any city knows how to give Bush “the boot,” it’s Calgary. It’s time to roundup the city’s old cowboy boots. Bush is the man who, without conscience, dragged Canadian peacekeepers into the Iraq War. Let him know how much he’s appreciated.
February 12th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
“I’m glad I’m not the only one whose mind conjured up some very bizarre images with this headline. ”
Me too -did quite a big doubletake, there.
Yech.
February 12th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
But I do believe it’s spelled “bukkake,” not that I’m going to google it here at work.
I did google it, and you’re right: 1,080,000 hits for “bukake” versus 11,900,000 for “bukkake.”
February 12th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
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February 12th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
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February 12th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
I was doing it wrong.
February 12th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
So is he going to be arrested?
Unfortunately, Canada’s war crimes legislation requires the signed consent of the head AG (ie. the cabinet minister) in order for a charge to be sworn (which is to say, a rogue prosecutor could not instigate a prosecution). Given that Harper’s Conservatives look at George Bush as a role model rather than a pariah, I don’t see that happening.
February 12th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
I didn’t know they were working relentlessly to doom the planet to ecological catastrophe in Alaska. Is that some sort of official governmental objective up there? I thought they were just trying to meet the global demand for oil and gas,
I realize that this is a snarky rhetorical question, but given how outrageously destructive the exploitation of the tar sands is, it is difficult to conclude anything other than the former, rather than the latter.
February 13th, 2009 at 12:38 am
No, no, you’re all confused,
the horizon is moving upMatt was using “despite” to call attention to “buckrake” and cause the reader to infer he meant “bukkake” without actually putting it in the hed, and thus drawing a lot of disappointed and confused Googlers.Well played, Matthew!
No, I don’t actually believe it, but it sounds good.
February 13th, 2009 at 3:35 am
“…working relentlessly to doom the planet to ecological catastrophe…”
Fits Albertans and Dick Cheney all right. But when did George Bush “work relentlessly” at anything?
February 13th, 2009 at 4:22 am
I’ve read the comments section of this blog for a long time, and I thought that I had seen the depths that of human depravity. I have seen thinly veiled racism, lavish fantasies of violence, and religious fundamentalism which does not even seek to conceal its preference for the Dark Ages to our own society.
Now, though, I’ve seen a commenter who puts the URL of Encyclopædia Dramatica’s Pain Series as his website link.
I think that this comments section has now broken me. If I were a stronger man, I would have withstood this. If I were Belle Waring, I might have written something funny about those wacky/depressing Yglesias commenters who immediately seize on the word “buckrake” to start talking about Bukake. For me, though, there is only sorrow and pain.
February 13th, 2009 at 6:30 am
Re: Except with much better prospects and more diverse.
I’ve only been to Alberta once (Banff and Edmonton) but I don’t recall the population being especially diverse while Texas, with its Hispanic immigrants, definitely is.
February 13th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Julian Elson, boo hoo hooo hoooo!
March 4th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
People V Bush Calgary – be there in body or spirit to give Bush the Boot! Please spread the word and link – so that Calgary can ‘welcome’ him as he so richly deserves…
btb beat the bushes
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